#Denis Rousseau

[artspaume]

Laval - L’art s’invite dans l’espace publicitaire pour une 5e édition (CA)

Un monde en soi, 2015 Aquarelle et collage sur papier / Caroline Boileau  Du 22 septembre au 13 octobre La Ville de Laval convie les citoyens et les citoyennes à découvrir une promenade urbaine singulière dans les stations de métro ​de la Concorde, Cartier et Montmorency et dans les rues à proximité de cette dernière. Le parcours artistique sera accessible du 22 septembre au 13 octobre, dans le…

[enlitment]

"I am born to love you and to cause you annoyance."

- D. Diderot in a letter to J. Rousseau (Packet A, No. 52)

From the same letter Rousseau almost thrown in a fire :(

Fyi, I have marked the passage with a sticky note that now reads 'forever in awe of the writing style of 1700s M/M letters' and 'some JJ/DD cause I'm not God's strongest soldier'

[decaffeinatedcrack]

Who's your favorite philosopher of the enlightenment? Locke? Voltaire? Rousseau? WRONG.

Diderot is the greatest philosopher of the enlightenment because he was the only one who did shit.

Voltaire was all bark no bite, Locke had his head so far up his optimistic ass that he couldn't have implemented any of his ideas if he tried, and Rousseau was Rousseau.

All of the enlightened philosophers believed in and advocated for equal education yet Diderot was the only person to actually provide it.

With his Encyclopedia he managed to distribute knowledge regardless of social class. It started out only for the rich but with modified versions, thinner paper and less pictures, he was able to make it cheaper and available to all. It became a household item that could teach people anything they needed to know.

Was it free schooling? No. But, as a commoner, it was both the most he could do and the biggest step towards indiscrimant education that any philosopher had ever taken.

Diderot is THE best philosopher of the enlightenment, period.

[yorgunherakles]

bir mektubunda insanlar arasındaki yalnızlığın çöldeki yalnızlıktan daha acımasız olduğunu ileri sürüyordu.

lars svendsen - yalnızlığın felsefesi

[addictivecontradiction]

Les invasions barbares, 2003

[wholoveseggs]

~Requests♡~

{<- masterlist}

18+

Smut ~ Violence ~ Fluff ~ Angst

Birthday Lessons {5k} {Elijah x Kol x Reader} ♡♡ --- On your birthday night at Rousseau's, tension fills the air as Kol and Elijah compete for your attention, promising a celebration like no other.

Je t'aime, Je t'adore {3k} ♡♡ --- You and Elijah are enjoying your honeymoon in the south of France, doing what newlyweds do best.

Dinner can wait {2k} ♡ --- Elijah is nervous about you returning home after a trip, so he cooks dinner to calm himself.

Cold Truth {5k} ♡♡ --- You and Klaus are on a mission to turn Elijah's humanity switch back on. The only problem is that you are the reason he turned it off in the first place.

Gentle {3k} ♡♡ --- As movie night with Elijah gets heated, you voice your insecurities and he dispels your fears.

Eyes for you {4k} ♡♡♡ --- Amidst the clinking of glasses and strained smiles, you find yourself feeling jealous of the way Hayley is interacting with your husband... Until he shows you exactly why you shouldn't be feeling that way.

Elijah's Love Letters {2.5k} ♡ --- NSFW Alphabet

Klaus's Love Letters {3k} ♡ --- NSFW Alphabet

Always {3k} ♡♡♡ --- Upon your unexpected appearance at the compound, centuries after being presumed dead, Elijah has to grapple with feelings he long buried and the consequences that come with it.

Between Pages {5k} ♡ --- It's the 1960s, and you are a college student finding solace in the campus library. There, you encounter more than knowledge within its walls.

What did you wish for? {2k} ♡♡ --- On your birthday, Elijah and Rebekah find themselves at odds when it comes to organizing the party.

Tied {2.7k} ♡ --- After days apart, you've crafted the perfect surprise for Elijah to welcome him home.

Reminder {4.5k} ♡♡♡ --- Your relationship with Elijah feels like its unravelling with the arrival of Hayley and a cutting nickname from Klaus. Fortunately, Elijah knows just what to do to make you feel loved.

Strings {6.2k} ♡♡♡ --- You've denied what your heart wants for so long and Elijah is tired of waiting.

Whine {5k} ♡♡ --- You make the mistake of testing Elijah's patience and he puts you in your place.

Devotion {7.7k} ♡♡ --- When you find out you are pregnant you are afraid of how Elijah will react. His anxieties around fatherhood get the best of him and he gives in to his darker impulses.

Crush {6.7k} ♡♡♡ --- You have quite the crush on Rebekah's big brother, and you find yourself lost in the tangled web of unreciprocated feelings, yearning for a love that may never be yours.

Forgiveness {5.5k} ♡♡♡ --- After a tragic event you flip your humanity switch and begin to terrorize the Quarter. You have to be put down for the good of the city, but your husband will stop at nothing to save you.

Stubborn {4.1k} ♡♡ --- You and Elijah get into a fight about his protective nature. He thinks you are too stubborn, and you think he's too controlling. How will you resolve your issues?

Ménage à Quatre {5.3k} {Elijah x Klaus x Rebekah x Reader} ♡ --- Just a quick little ménage à quatre with Rebekah & the boys...

Change {5.8k} ♡♡♡ --- Your marriage causes you to feel trapped and worthless. Until you meet a handsome stranger at a café and he shows you how much more you can be.

Touch {5.6k} ♡♡♡ --- After a dinner party with the Mikaelson family, you try to get Elijah to open up his heart to you.

Teach You {3.6k} ♡♡ --- You are nervous about your first time with Elijah and he makes it an unforgettable experience.

Perfect {2.8k} {he/him pronouns} ♡♡ --- After a date with Elijah, you want to take things to the next level and he makes you feel like the only boy in the world.

Piano Lessons {2.4k} ♡ --- You come home after a long day at work and Elijah helps you unwind with a song.

Misbehavior {8.2k} ♡♡♡♡ --- Elijah Mikaelson is controlling, arrogant and absolutely infuriating, you don't know how anybody can stand him. That is... until he gets you in his bed.

Fantasies {4.8k} ♡ --- You get Elijah to open up about his desires and he discovers a few of yours, leading to a night of fun and exploration.

Worth the wait {7.1k} ♡♡♡ --- You and Elijah are childhood friends, dipping in and out of each others lives for the past one thousand years. You hope that one day you will have a chance to be together and find the love you've always longed for.

Magnificent {8.8k} {Elijah x Klaus x Kol x Reader} ♡ --- Just a quick little ménage à quatre with Elijah, Kol and Klaus... on spring break...

Hold {4.9k} ♡♡ --- You are having drinks with Elijah and you want to tell him about your little problem, in hopes that he will help you with it.

Paperwork {5k} ♡♡ --- You approach a handsome philanthropist at a charity gala, leading to a stress-relieving meeting high above the city lights.

Princess {5.1k} ♡ --- You and Elijah have a night of kinky fun.

Safe {8.2k} ♡♡♡♡ --- In a world where trust is hard to come by, you've learned to keep your guard up, especially around men. But when Elijah enters your life, he's determined to break through your defenses, venturing into a realm of passion, pain, and the search for something real.

Madness {6.4k} ♡♡ --- You bring a date to the Mikaelson party, specifically to attract the attention of your estranged husband. The plan backfires; he's not the type to let you go so easily and makes sure to remind you that no one will ever take his place.

Soft {3.4k} ♡♡ --- You've been dating Elijah for a while, but your insecurities keep you from taking things further. But one night, Elijah finally gets the chance to show you how much he loves your curves.

Forever {6.8k} ♡♡♡ --- Elijah loves you with all his heart, but his commitment to his family and his loyalty to Klaus keeps him from acting on his feelings. But when he almost loses you, he is determined to prove that you are the only woman he has ever truly loved, and wants to make you his, forever.

Three Lessons {6.2k} ♡ --- Elijah finds you in transition and teaches you a few lessons on how to be a vampire.

Control {6k} ♡♡♡ --- Plagued by nightmares of hurting you, Elijah avoids any form of intimacy, but you have had enough. You confront him about his rejection and Elijah finally learns how to let go and lose control.

Wishes {3.1k} {Haylijah} ♡♡♡ --- A smutty extended version of haylijah's first time together.

Respect {2.9k} {Delijah} ♡ --- Elijah puts Damon in his place, and demands he show him a little more than respect.

Cat and Mouse {5.3k} ♡ --- It's your anniversary party, but you are terribly bored, and the one person you actually want to be around isn't playing fair.

Decadence {5.9k} ♡ --- Elijah meets an intriguing woman at the opera, leading to an evening of music, wine and vampiric indulgences.

Bindings {4.9k} ♡ --- You ask Davina for help with creating something to tie up Elijah... only for you to get in way over your head. Luckily, he is in a forgiving mood.

Family Man {4.5k} ♡♡ --- Life at the compound can be chaotic with kids and family running around, but Elijah wouldn't have it any other way.

Gratitude {4.7k} ♡♡ --- It's a warm summer night and Elijah plans a special date for you, hoping to make your dreams come true.

Something Sweet {5.5k} ♡♡ --- It's the day of your wedding, a day you've dreamed about since you were young. Everything is exactly as you imagined it would be, except one thing. Today is not only the day of your wedding, today is also the day you die... And you never wanted anything so badly.

Perfect Messes {5.6k} ♡♡♡ --- After a difficult relationship that left you struggling to rebuild your life, you reconnect with an old friend who helps you rediscover what true love feels like.

Bloodier Bath {2.7k} ♡♡ --- Aunt Flo comes to visit and the noble Elijah once again stands up to the bitch.

Insatiable {3.9k} ♡ --- You are at the club with the Mikaelsons, and your husband Elijah gets a little jealous when someone else hits on you.

Ice Cream and Love Bites {8.2k} ♡♡ --- You are at a playground with your son when you meet Elijah. He is everything you are looking for in a partner, but his life is shrouded in mystery. Can you trust him with your heart?

Please Sir {4.2k} ♡ --- You meet Elijah on a dating app, needing his help to fulfill a fantasy, and he is happy to oblige.

Following Orders {2.7k} ♡ --- You decide to reverse the roles for a day, tying Elijah up and having your way with him...

Springs {2.7k} ♡ {Viking!Elijah} --- You meet your secret lover deep in the woods, and take him to your favorite spot to spend some time together.

[theroyalthornoliachronicles]

Château de Clèrisseau: 24 Mai 1850, 13:30

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: All I am trying to do is understand, Mignonne!

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Not only have you rejected Oliver's invitation, but now you are refusing the proposal of le Vicomte? I've never been so unsettled by your actions as I was watching le Vicomte leave just now!

Mademoiselle Eleanor: A marriage with le Vicomte would never have worked, Maman.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: And Oliver? What of him?

Mademoiselle Eleanor: Maman, s'il vous plaît....

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: [Sighs] I wish you would tell me what's wrong, Mignonne. You have no idea what it is to watch you suffer so, to know where your feelings truly lie yet watch you work so diligently to deny yourself your own happiness!

Mademoiselle Eleanor: There's nothing to say, Maman. It is best to let the matter lie.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: I cannot, Mignonne. Not when I-

Steward: Pardonnez-moi, Madame.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Oui?

Steward: A caller has arrived for Mademoiselle Valery.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Quoi?

Steward: A caller, Madame.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: I see...Well, we shall welcome him, of course.

Steward: Oui, Madame. [Leaves]

Mademoiselle Eleanor: Maman, what are you doing?

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: If you cannot explain your reasonings behind rejecting two impeccable matches, than we have no choice but consider other suitors.

Mademoiselle Eleanor: Maman-

Steward: Monsieur le Marquis de Solomont.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Monsieur de Rousseau! This is certainly a pleasant surprise, To what do we owe such a pleasure?

Marquis de Solomont: I believe the pleasure to be entirely mine, Madame. I trust you both are enjoying this fine afternoon?

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: En effet. You caught us just in time. We were just discussing plans to take a walk about the park.

Marquis de Solomont: Is that so? What a coincidence. I came to ask if Mademoiselle Valery would happen to fancy just that. Would it be too presumptious to intrude on your plans?

Mademoiselle Eleanor: Oh, I-

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: She would be honoured, I assure you.

Marquis de Solomont: Magnifique!

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Shall we, then?

Marquis de Solomont: I have one more question to ask before we do, if you'll allow me? Just yesterday I heard you have yet to receive an invitation to tomorrow's Prix de Thornolie, and I wondered if you might accept mine?

Mademoiselle Eleanor: Oh...I suppose...you honour me, Monsieur.

Marquis de Solomont: Splendide! You have truly brighten my spirits, Mademoiselle Valery.

Duchesse de Clèrisseau: Well...what a turn of events this is. Shall we all be off then?

Marquis de Solomont: En effet. Mademoiselle?

Previous | Beginning | Next

[probablyasocialecologist]

As used, the term ‘precolonial’ Africa and the distortions it represents cannot illuminate our understanding of Africa and its history. More importantly, it is wrong to think of colonialism as a non-African phenomenon that was only brought in from elsewhere and imposed on the continent. Africa has given rise to a rich tapestry of diverse colonialisms originating in different parts of the continent. How are we to understand them? For example, if ‘precolonial Morocco’ refers to the time before France colonised Morocco, it must deny that the 800-year Moorish colonisation of the Iberian Peninsula, much of present-day France and much of North Africa was a colonialism. For, if it were, then ‘colonial Morocco’ must predate ‘precolonial Morocco’. I do not know how any of this helps us understand the history of Morocco. Similarly, a ‘precolonial’ Egypt that refers to Egypt before modern European imperialism would also deny Mohammed Ali’s colonial adventures at the head of Egypt in southern Europe and Asia Minor. Was ancient Egypt part of some precolonial formation? That strains credulity. To conceive of the history of Africa and Africans in terms only, or primarily, of their relation to modern European empires disappears the history of Africans as colonisers of realms beyond the continent’s land borders, especially in Europe and Asia. It is bad enough that the term distorts the history of African states’ involvement in overseas provinces. It is worse that it misdescribes the evolution of different African polities over time. The deployment of ‘precolonial Africa’ is undergirded by a few implausible assumptions. We assume either that there were no previous forms of colonialism in the continent, or that they do not matter. We talk as if colonialism was brought to Africa by Europe, after the 1884-85 Berlin West Africa Conference. But it takes only a pause to discover that this is false. African history is replete with accounts of empires and kingdoms. By their nature, empires incorporate elements of colonisation in them. If this be granted, Africa must have had its fair share of colonisers and colonialists in its history. When, according to the mythohistory (the founding myth of the empire) of Mali, Sundiata gathered different nations, cultures, political leaders and others to form the empire in the mid-13th century, he did not first seek the consent of his subjects. It was in the aftermath of their being subdued by his superior force that he did what Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century insisted all rulers should do if their rule is to escape repeated challenges and last for an appreciable length of time: turn might into right. Ethiopia, another veritable empire, is a multinational, multilingual, multicultural state whose members were not willing parties to their original incorporation into the polity. Whether you think of the Oromo or the Somali, many of their successor states within Ethiopia are, as I write this, still conducting anticolonial struggles against the Ethiopian state.

[raincitygirl76]

Speaking as of March 17, the day before 3.06 drops, I don't see August's arc in 3.01 to 3.05 as a redemption arc. Yeah, he's done one more genuinely nice thing in his life than before S3: for his third years, walking back from the homophobic sexual degradation that he experienced in his own initiation as a first year. Go him.

That's a good thing he's done, no question. But he still organized terrifying initiations (even if they weren't quite as bad as his own), he still got booze from Simon for the initiation party that he'd never had any intention of paying for.

August also allowed his lawyer to make that outrageous statement in 3.01 denying that the video was defamatory. The only reason he's not in jail awaiting trial on CP charges is because he has money and connections to make his criminal act disappear. That's not original, about the money and connections, but I forget who said it first. @unfortunate17 or @billfarrah , maybe... He was also smug rather than penitent while everybody was signing the paperwork.

Also, August persists in walking all over Sara's boundaries. He visits her at Micke's without warning, and doesn't apologize for the position he put her in. He uses that Conversation to remind her that she and he have similar dads, except Micke is alive and Carl Johan is dead. He's trying to play on Sara's sympathy. Even though the whole reason she feels she has to live with Micke is because of august's past bad actions.

And he repeatedly defies her wishes about not wanting to read his first year letter. He follows her out to the dumpster and insists on reading it to her to tug on her heartstrings. Even after she was clear she didn't want to read it and gave it back to him.

Now, was August being manipulative in S3 on purpose? No. But he and Sara aren't an example of a healthy relationship just because in S3 Wilhelm and Simon have an unhealthy relationship. I know I shouldn't use the word healthy, but at the moment I can't think of a suitable synonym.

So yeah, now he's done exactly two nice things in his life that we know of:

Buying Sara for Rousseau

Dialling back the sexual intimidation on the Forest Ridge initiations when he was a third year. Although the initiations August presided over were no walk in the park, so let's not give him too much credit.

I'm not saying he's a soulless monster. He's only 18 going on 19, he has time to improve before we write him off altogether. But he has STILL never apologized to Simon and Wilhelm for the sexual violation he inflicted on them. As soon as the NDA was safely signed, his own bad actions regarding the video were in August's rear view mirror.

So yeah, he listened to Boris and he tried to do a nice thing or two. But he’s still August.

[enlitment]

Kinda losing my mind over the yassified French Philosopher stickers I've found on Redbubble...

Diderot, JJ, but especially this incredible high-femme serving Voltaire:

[nigrit]

Fantasy caricature?

The Savage Man (1767)

One for @enlitment as a Coda to your reading of 'Confessions'. I present: the Savage Man!

In Jan 1767, James Boswell, who had become entangled in the infamous squabble between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume, published a humorous note in the London Chronicle. In it, he claimed that a print would soon appear, satirising JJ in the most ludicrous manner, presenting him as a hairy savage dressed in nothing but leaves being tormented by his foes. [He is shown trampling on coins and papers, alluding to his rejected pension and the Letters published by Hume]. Hume approaches from the left, dressed as a farmer carrying a basket with a huge fish lettered, "a Dinner / I have you Rousseau". Behind him, a doctor applies a clyster while another says, "He's Costive" [no idea what this means]. On his right, Voltaire, riding a hobby horse, flicks Rousseau's bum with a wet towel saying "I'll whip him into humanity", while Peter the Wildboy eggs him on. In the background, three apes gaze upon the scene, one exclaiming, "The Inequality of Mankind"!

In fact Boswell's notice was a complete fabrication dreamt up by his feverish imagination, for he he had become peeved at Rousseau's sudden coldness towards him. This had nothing to do with Hume and likely a lot to do with Therese's confession of her "thirteen times a night" (at least that's what Boswell told his diary) cross-Channel indiscretion with her 'patient' and 'employer'. At least JJ had been denying she was his mistress in correspondence since 1754. Anyway, I digress. The point is that some enterprising engraver decided to bring Boswell's verbal sketch to life and a print was duly executed.

[vorbarrsultana]

Lestat & books (TVL edition)

Featuring all works of literature mentioned in the text of The Vampire Lestat.

Mark Twain, mentioned without any specific works of his;

William Shakespeare, with "Macbet" being a particular favorite. "Tommorow, and tommorow, and tommorow" is also Lestat's favorite monologue to perform;

Henry Rider Haggard, a British novelist who wrote "King Solomon's Mines' and "Cleopatra";

Dashiell Hammet, "The Maltese Falcon" about the adventures of Sam Spades;

Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Francis Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and Dante Alighieri are the most famous;

Charles Dickens ("A Tale of Two Cities", I imagine, or "Great Expectations". Post-trial Lestat might also like "A Christmas Carol")

Ernest Hemingway post-1930, possibly "For Whom the Bell Tolls", which seems to be his novel most in line with Lestat's taste in literature;

Denis Diderot, the Enlightenment philosopher and writer, co-creator & chief editor of The Encyclopédie, also wrote La Religieuse, a novel that featured very outspoken critique of the Catholic Church;

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who famously wrote "The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right" & "Discorse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men", and was the main inspiration of the Jacobins during the French Revolution;

Voltaire, both as philosopher ("Letters concerning the English Nation", "Idées républicaines", etc.) and playwright ("Oedipus", "Iréne", "Socrate", etc.);

Pierre Corneille (a playwright: "Le Cid", "Horace", "Cinna" and "Polyeucte");

Jean-Baptiste Racine (another Classicist French playwright, author of "Alexandre le Grand", "Andromaque" & "Iphigénie");

Molière, yet another French playwright ("Don Juan, or, The Stone Banquet", "L'Amour médecin", "Psyché");

Whatever classics Lestat has read in Latin during his & Gabrielle's stay in Venice. She specifically mentioned Plutarch, Egyptian and Greek myths;

John Polidori, "The Vampyre";

Sheridan Le Fanu, "Carmilla";

And, with great distaste, Bram Stoker's "Dracula"

[characterdesignreferences]

Art by Denis Rousseau

March’s Theme: #AnimalWuxiaHero

Presented by CDQ Magazine

Discover the artists of the Character Design Challenge community and the current Theme of the Month in our Facebook Group! And when you repost your design on our Patreon page, you can also win awesome prizes every month and choose the future themes!

RULES | WINNERS | MAGAZINE | BOOKS

[young-royals-confessions]

Do fans hate Sara because she impulsively snitched on Felice to her parents about Rousseau? Do fans hate her because she prefers hanging out with the horse rather than people due to her social difficulty? Would fans hate her if she arrived late for class because of her time blindness? If these are the reasons they hate her, I’d say it’s ableism. But when I see any Sara hate, it’s because of her calculated behaviour starting with the deal to get into Manor House, initiating a sexual relationship with a sex criminal and/or denying her brother justice and ignore his pain for her own gain. This is hardly ableist. If they hate her, it’s justified because it’s frankly disgusting behaviour.

.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter VIII. Of the Responsibility of Man and Of God, Under the Law of Contradiction, Or a Solution of the Problem of Providence.

THE ancients blamed human nature for the presence of evil in the world.

Christian theology has only embroidered this theme in its own fashion; and, as that theology sums up the whole religious period extending from the origin of society to our own time, it may be said that the dogma of original sin, having in its favor the assent of the human race, acquires by that very fact the highest degree of probability.

So, according to all the testimony of ancient wisdom, each people defending its own institutions as excellent and glorifying them, it is not to religions, or to governments, or to traditional customs accredited by the respect of generations, that the cause of evil must be traced, but rather to a primitive perversion, to a sort of congenital malice in the will of man. As to the question how a being could have perverted and corrupted itself originally, the ancients avoided that difficulty by fables: Eve’s apple and Pandora’s box have remained celebrated among their symbolic solutions.

Not only, then, had antiquity posited in its myths the question of the origin of evil; it had solved it by another myth, in unhesitatingly affirming the criminality ab ovo of our race.

Modern philosophers have erected against the Christian dogma a dogma no less obscure, — that of the depravity of society. Man is born good, cries Rousseau, in his peremptory style; but society — that is, the forms and institutions of society — depraves him. In such terms was formulated the paradox, or, better, the protest, of the philosopher of Geneva.

Now, it is evident that this idea is only the ancient hypothesis turned about. The ancients accused the individual man; Rousseau accuses the collective man: at bottom, it is always the same proposition, an absurd proposition.

Nevertheless, in spite of the fundamental identity of the principle, Rousseau’s formula, precisely because it was an opposition, was a step forward; consequently it was welcomed with enthusiasm, and it became the signal of a reaction full of contradictions and absurdities. Singular thing! it is to the anathema launched by the author of “Emile” against society that modern socialism is to be traced.

For the last seventy or eighty years the principle of social perversion has been exploited and popularized by various sectarians, who, while copying Rousseau, reject with all their might the anti-social philosophy of that writer, without perceiving that, by the very fact that they aspire to reform society, they are as unsocial or unsociable as he. It is a curious spectacle to see these pseudo-innovators, condemning after Jean Jacques monarchy, democracy, property, communism, thine and mine, monopoly, wages, police, taxation, luxury, commerce, money, in a word, all that constitutes society and without which society is inconceivable, and then accusing this same Jean Jacques of misanthropy and paralogism, because, after having seen the emptiness of all utopias, at the same time that he pointed out the antagonism of civilization, he sternly concluded against society, though recognizing that without society there is no humanity.

I advise those who, on the strength of what slanderers and plagiarists say, imagine that Rousseau embraced his theory only from a vain love of eccentricity, to read “Emile” and the “Social Contract” once more. That admirable dialectician was led to deny society from the standpoint of justice, although he was forced to admit it as necessary; just as we, who believe in an indefinite progress, do not cease to deny, as normal and definitive, the existing state of society. Only, whereas Rousseau, by a political combination and an educational system of his own, tried to bring man nearer to what he called nature, and what seemed to him the ideal society, we, instructed in a profounder school, say that the task of society is to continually solve its antinomies, — a matter of which Rousseau could have had no idea. Thus, apart from the now abandoned system of the “Social Contract,” and so far as criticism alone is concerned, socialism, whatever it may say, is still in the same position as Rousseau, forced to reform society incessantly, — that is, to perpetually deny it.

Rousseau, in short, simply declared in a summary and definitive manner what the socialists repeat in detail and at every moment of progress, — namely, that social order is imperfect, always lacking something. Rousseau’s error does not, can not lie in this negation of society: it consists, as we shall show, in his failure to follow his argument to the end and deny at once society, man, and God.

However that may be, the theory of man’s innocence, corresponding to that of the depravity of society, has at last got the upper hand. The immense majority of socialists — Saint-Simon, Owen, Fourier, and their disciples; communists, democrats, progressives of all sorts — have solemnly repudiated the Christian myth of the fall to substitute there for the system of an aberration on the part of society. And, as most of these sectarians, in spite of their flagrant impiety, were still too religious, too pious, to finish the work of Jean Jacques and trace back to God the responsibility for evil, they have found a way of deducing from the hypothesis of God the dogma of the native goodness of man, and have begun to fulminate against society in the finest fashion.

The theoretical and practical consequences of this reaction were that, evil — that is, the effect of internal and external struggle — being abnormal and transitory, penal and repressive institutions are likewise transitory; that in man there is no native vice, but that his environment has depraved his inclinations; that civilization has been mistaken as to its own tendencies; that constraint is immoral, that our passions are holy; that enjoyment is holy and should be sought after like virtue itself, because God, who caused us to desire it, is holy. And, the women coming to the aid of the eloquence of the philosophers, a deluge of anti-restrictive protests has fallen, quasi de vulva erumpens, to make use of a comparison from the Holy Scriptures, upon the wonder-stricken public.

The writings of this school are recognizable by their evangelical style, their melancholy theism, and, above all, their enigmatical dialectics.

“They blame human nature,” says M. Louis Blanc, “for almost all our evils; the blame should be laid upon the vicious character of social institutions. Look around you: how many talents misplaced, and CONSEQUENTLY depraved! How many activities have become turbulent for want of having found their legitimate and natural object! They force our passions to traverse an impure medium; is it at all surprising that they become altered? Place a healthy man in a pestilent atmosphere, and he will inhale death.... Civilization has taken a wrong road,... and to say that it could not have been otherwise is to lose the right to talk of equity, of morality, of progress; it is to lose the right to talk of God. Providence disappears to give place to the grossest fatalism.”

The name of God recurs forty times, and always to no purpose, in M. Blanc’s “Organization of Labor,” which I quote from preference, because in my view it represents advanced democratic opinion better than any other work, and because I like to do it honor by refuting it.

Thus, while socialism, aided by extreme democracy, deifies man by denying the dogma of the fall, and consequently dethrones God, henceforth useless to the perfection of his creature, this same socialism, through mental cowardice, falls back upon the affirmation of Providence, and that at the very moment when it denies the providential authority of history.

And as nothing stands such chance of success among men as contradiction, the idea of a religion of pleasure, renewed from Epicurus during an eclipse of public reason, has been taken as an inspiration of the national genius; it is this that distinguishes the new theists from the Catholics, against whom the former have inveighed so loudly during the last two years only out of rivalry in fanaticism. It is the fashion today to speak of God on all occasions and to declaim against the pope; to invoke Providence and to scoff at the Church. Thank God! we are not atheists, said “La Reforme” one day; all the more, it might have added by way of increasing its absurdity, we are not Christians. The word has gone forth to every one who holds a pen to bamboozle the people, and the first article of the new faith is that an infinitely good God has created man as good as himself; which does not prevent man, under the eye of God, from becoming wicked in a detestable society.

Nevertheless it is plain, in spite of these semblances of religion, we might even say these desires for it, that the quarrel between socialism and Christian tradition, between man and society, must end by a denial of Divinity. Social reason is not distinguishable by us from absolute Reason, which is no other than God himself, and to deny society in its past phases is to deny Providence, is to deny God.

Thus, then, we are placed between two negations, two contradictory affirmations: one which, by the voice of entire antiquity, setting aside as out of the question society and God which it represents, finds in man alone the principle of evil; another which, protesting in the name of free, intelligent, and progressive man, throws back upon social infirmity and, by a necessary consequence, upon the creative and inspiring genius of society all the disturbances of the universe.

Now, as the anomalies of social order and the oppression of individual liberties arise principally from the play of economic contradictions, we have to inquire, in view of the data which we have brought to light:

1. Whether fate, whose circle surrounds us, exercises a control over our liberty so imperious and compulsory that infractions of the law, committed under the dominion of antinomies, cease to be imputable to us? And, if not, whence arises this culpability peculiar to man?

2. Whether the hypothetical being, utterly good, omnipotent, omniscient, to whom faith attributes the supreme direction of human agitations, has not himself failed society at the moment of danger? And, if so, to explain this insufficiency of Divinity.

In short, we are to find out whether man is God, whether God himself is God, or whether, to attain the fullness of intelligence and liberty, we must search for a superior cause.